Not many people have heard of Xennials, seeing as they’re one of the smaller generations (and since baby boomers, millennials and Gen Z tend to get most of the focus these days). However, for those who were born in the early 80s—more specifically, between 1977 and 1985—and aren’t part of Gen X or the millennial generation, your home lies as a Xennial.
Fun Facts
- The term for this microgeneration was coined in 2014 in Good Magazine, by Sarah Stankorb. They’re also sometimes referred to as the “Oregon Trail Generation,” due to the fact that the computer game Oregon Trail was popular when they were growing up.
- Xennials were the first people to grow up with computers and have access to the internet, making them “pros” at surfing the web. They also were able to experience the rise of the internet at an age where they could understand what it meant, rather than just being born into a world where it’s already prevalent.
- They grew up without social media but are still adept at using various channels. This is probably a blessing in a curse for them since they didn’t have to go through those years of regretting the photos they shared on Myspace or the heartfelt blog posts they wrote out on LiveJournal.
- This group likely got their first cell phones well into their 20s. But that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to use them! This group is tech-savvy while afforded a distance from their devices that millennials and Gen Z, at times, appear incapable of.
- They fall in between Gen X and millennials as far as optimism goes (Gen X being the more cynical end of the spectrum).
- They were hit hardest by the recession and faced more job losses and increased student loan debt. This likely comes from the fact that they were mainly in adulthood and in the employment phase rather than being recent graduates or enrolled in college, like millennials, or well-established in a career, like Gen X.
Why They’re Important
This group is uniquely positioned to bridge the technology gap. Since they grew up with the advent of the internet, smartphones, social media, etc., but were still a bit too old to be playing around on Facebook or Myspace in their youth, they have an insight into what makes these various devices and channels so important while not being too wrapped up in the day-to-day.
Via the Huffington Post, Dan Woodman, associate professor of sociology at the University of Melbourne, said to Australian site Mamamia, “It was a particularly unique experience. You have a childhood, youth, and adolescence free of having to worry about social media posts and mobile phones. … We learned to consume media and came of age before there was Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and all these things where you still watch the evening news or read the newspaper.”
According to the Huffington Post, “Like the pessimistic Gen Xers before them, this microgeneration is not as tech savvy as the millennials who are considered digital natives.”
They’re an important part of the economy, and not one you want to overlook, both internally with your own teams and externally as you think of your consumers.
